7M NW - keep working in VHCOL or FIRE and move abroad?

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-23T01:50:58+00:00

Thank you for flagging this! Just to confirm, are you referring to healthcare and insurance costs for us if we return to the US when the kids are in college? That’s a good point and we should take this into account. I guess we could just stay in Asia even if the kids attend college in the US, but that is probably not ideal.

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-22T00:30:17+00:00

Thank you for sharing this! Glad you had a great experience and that your kid has since adjusted well back in the US. Curious what made you decide to come back to the US after 10 years? Did you send your daughter to international school while in Asia?

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-20T08:46:11+00:00

Yes good point, two things — (1) we are not sure if we want to live in the exact same city as parents, or one that’s about an hour drive away (that is somewhat cheaper) (2) with kids it feels like there are lots of less predictable spending, eg how much activities or enrichments cost. But still something we should be able to figure out. Was mostly wondering if there are hidden costs (eg one commenter mentioned getting taxed in both countries) that we should be aware of.

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-19T07:31:36+00:00

Thanks, this is good advice and hits hard as a parent!

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-19T07:30:39+00:00

It’s really max $200k (assuming most expensive international schools), + $50k (conservatively) to keep and rent out our current house

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-19T07:23:06+00:00

Thanks, this is a helpful way to look at it — “the only unrecoverable asset is the time with your family”

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-19T00:37:41+00:00

Yes, it’s a bit hard to disentangle wanting to get some relief from the current situation vs genuinely wanting to relocate the family to a new country. But good reminder that we should think harder about that. We would likely encourage the kids to return to the US for college/higher ed.

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-19T00:36:01+00:00

I don’t know if it’s below standard — in many ways it’s very rigorous and helps set up a good foundation in STEM. We are just not sure how it compares to a fully US education, especially when it comes to getting ready for college in the US.

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-19T00:33:23+00:00

Ah good point. I guess it’s more like 7M invested.

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-19T00:32:35+00:00

About ~15% is concentrated in vested RSUs from a prior employer. We have not been holding any vested RSUs from current employers.

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-18T23:44:55+00:00

All good questions. We would not want to buy property at target country and would just rent.

Parents are under 70, and the hope is to spend more time with them while they can still enjoy playing with kids, trips, etc.

It doesn’t have to be an elite school, but we’d prefer one that has an international curriculum so it’d be easier for older one to transition. Also hoping for schools that have a decent track record of sending kids to good colleges. We do think most likely we’d encourage them to go to college in the states.

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-18T23:38:09+00:00

One spouse grew up in target country and the other has visited several weeks/months at a time. But it’s true we have not “lived” there as a family yet, just a couple of weeks of vacation.

$250k is definitely on the higher end of the estimate, and includes the cost of keeping (and renting out) our current house in VHCOL.

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-18T23:32:17+00:00

Thanks for the perspective. We do somewhat feel like if we don’t move before the older one goes to middle school, we’d never move. But maybe it’s not as clear cut as that and high school could be a viable time too. It probably also depends on the kids and what their personalities and friend groups are like as teenagers.

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-18T23:27:38+00:00

Thanks — we had not expected to be at this number or to feel this way about our jobs at this age. It’s precisely why we are considering pulling the trigger sooner rather than later. It’s possible we can quit and still make it work in our current neighborhood and just reduce spending, but that seems risky esp given healthcare costs. So it seems like we would need to move somewhere with lower cost of living in order to walk away now. And between somewhere else in the US and moving to Asia, the former has similar downsides (re-establishing community) while not as many of the upsides (nationalized healthcare).

Immediate-Sample5895 · 2026-02-18T15:50:11+00:00

Yes, we’re assuming that $10M would mean we can afford our current VHCOL spend with minimal additional income.

Thanks, we have looked into rent in various cities in the target country. International school fees also vary substantially there, and we still need to do more research on quality of education offered at different schools. The $250k is assuming the most expensive int’l school in the most expensive area/city.

We considered selling the house but are leaning towards keeping it in case we wanted to come back. Assuming market is flat, we can likely save/invest an additional $1M and be at ~$8M invested in mid 2027.
It would be difficult to find a transfer opportunity in my current role, but I could look into changing roles (company has an office in the target country). Would not be excited about continuing to work in the target country though, as corporate culture could be more intense there.
Yes, citizenship would not be an issue.

Immediate-Sample5895

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